Standard quantum state tomography assumes sufficient control of a system to measure an informationally complete set of observables. Dynamical quantum state tomography (DQST) presents an alternative: given a system with known dynamics and a single fixed observable, it almost always suffices to control only the time at which each i.i.d. copy of the system is measured. This work presents an analogous scheme for tomography of multi-mode Bosonic Gaussian states undergoing Gaussian evolution, using a fixed single-mode homodyne measurement and only assuming control of the time of measurement. I prove that the scheme enables tomography for all discrete homogenous Gaussian evolutions and Gaussian quantum dynamical semigroups except for a null set which includes unitary evolution. When the state is known to be pure, a smaller number of measurement times is shown to be sufficient.
Standard quantum state tomography assumes sufficient control of a system to measure an informationally complete set of observables. Dynamical quantum state tomography (DQST) presents an alternative: given a system with known dynamics and a single fixed observable, it almost always suffices to control only the time at which each i.i.d. copy of the system is measured. This work presents an analogous scheme for tomography of multi-mode Bosonic Gaussian states undergoing Gaussian evolution, using a fixed single-mode homodyne measurement and only assuming control of the time of measurement. I prove that the scheme enables tomography for all discrete homogenous Gaussian evolutions and Gaussian quantum dynamical semigroups except for a null set which includes unitary evolution. When the state is known to be pure, a smaller number of measurement times is shown to be sufficient.
Quantum measurements are probabilistic and, in general, provide only partial information about the underlying quantum state. Obtaining a full classical description of an unknown quantum state requires the analysis of several different measurements, a task known as quantum-state tomography. Here we analyse the ultimate achievable performance in the tomography of continuous-variable systems, such as bosonic and quantum optical systems. We prove that tomography of these systems is extremely inefficient in terms of time resources, much more so than tomography of finite-dimensional systems such as qubits. Not only does the minimum number of state copies needed for tomography scale exponentially with the number of modes, but, even for low-energy states, it also scales unfavourably with the trace-distance error between the original state and its estimated classical description. On a more positive note, we prove that the tomography of Gaussian states is efficient by establishing a bound on the trace-distance error made when approximating a Gaussian state from knowledge of the first and second moments within a specified error bound. Last, we demonstrate that the tomography of non-Gaussian states prepared through Gaussian unitaries and a few local non-Gaussian evolutions is efficient and experimentally feasible.
Quantum measurements are probabilistic and, in general, provide only partial information about the underlying quantum state. Obtaining a full classical description of an unknown quantum state requires the analysis of several different measurements, a task known as quantum-state tomography. Here we analyse the ultimate achievable performance in the tomography of continuous-variable systems, such as bosonic and quantum optical systems. We prove that tomography of these systems is extremely inefficient in terms of time resources, much more so than tomography of finite-dimensional systems such as qubits. Not only does the minimum number of state copies needed for tomography scale exponentially with the number of modes, but, even for low-energy states, it also scales unfavourably with the trace-distance error between the original state and its estimated classical description. On a more positive note, we prove that the tomography of Gaussian states is efficient by establishing a bound on the trace-distance error made when approximating a Gaussian state from knowledge of the first and second moments within a specified error bound. Last, we demonstrate that the tomography of non-Gaussian states prepared through Gaussian unitaries and a few local non-Gaussian evolutions is efficient and experimentally feasible.
Quantum state tomography, aimed at deriving a classical description of an unknown state from measurement data, is a fundamental task in quantum physics. In this work, we analyse the ultimate achievable performance of tomography of continuous-variable systems, such as bosonic and quantum optical systems. We prove that tomography of these systems is extremely inefficient in terms of time resources, much more so than tomography of finite-dimensional systems: not only does the minimum number of state copies needed for tomography scale exponentially with the number of modes, but it also exhibits a dramatic scaling with the trace-distance error, even for low-energy states, in stark contrast with the finite-dimensional case. On a more positive note, we prove that tomography of Gaussian states is efficient. To accomplish this, we answer a fundamental question for the field of continuous-variable quantum information: if we know with a certain error the first and second moments of an unknown Gaussian state, what is the resulting trace-distance error that we make on the state? Lastly, we demonstrate that tomography of non-Gaussian states prepared through Gaussian unitaries and a few local non-Gaussian evolutions is efficient and experimentally feasible.
Abstract The article introduces efficient quantum state tomography schemes for qutrits and entangled qubits subject to pure decoherence. We implement the dynamic state reconstruction method for open systems sent through phase-damping channels, which was proposed in: Czerwinski and Jamiolkowski Open Syst. Inf. Dyn.23, 1650019 (2016). In the present article we prove that two distinct observables measured at four different time instants suffice to reconstruct the initial density matrix of a qutrit with evolution given by a phase-damping channel. Furthermore, we generalize the approach in order to determine criteria for quantum tomography of entangled qubits. Finally, we prove two universal theorems concerning the number of observables required for quantum state tomography of qudits subject to pure decoherence. We believe that dynamic state reconstruction schemes bring advancement and novelty to quantum tomography since they utilize the Heisenberg representation and allow to define the measurements in time domain.
We consider quantum state tomography with measurement procedures of the following type: First, we subject the quantum state we aim to identify to a known time evolution for a desired period of time. Afterwards we perform a measurement with a fixed measurement setup. This procedure can then be repeated for other periods of time, the measurement setup however remains unaltered. Given an n-dimensional system with suitable unitary dynamics, we show that any two states can be discriminated by performing a measurement with a setup that has n outcomes at n + 1 points in time. Furthermore, we consider scenarios where prior information restricts the set of states to a subset of lower dimensionality. Given an n-dimensional system with suitable unitary dynamics and a semi-algebraic subset R of its state space, we show that any two states of the subset can be discriminated by performing a measurement with a setup that has n outcomes at l steps of the time evolution if (n−1)l≥2dimR. In addition, by going beyond unitary dynamics, we show that one can in fact reduce to a setup with the minimal number of two outcomes.
Abstract The article establishes a framework for dynamic generation of informationally complete POVMs in quantum state tomography. Assuming that the evolution of a quantum system is given by a dynamical map in the Kraus representation, one can switch to the Heisenberg picture and define the measurements in the time domain. Consequently, starting with an incomplete set of positive operators, one can obtain sufficient information for quantum state reconstruction by multiple measurements. The framework has been demonstrated on qubits and qutrits. For some types of dynamical maps, it suffices to initially have one measurement operator. The results demonstrate that quantum state tomography is feasible even with limited measurement potential.